It's This Town I Feel Sorry For
by wackywhateleys
Summary: Dalston explains how Randall's disappearance is screwing over Stansbury. (Oneshot.)


_(Teen Dalston talks about Randall's disappearance. Because let's face it, we all love Dalston.)_

Let's get this straight. I wasn't one of Ascot's little friends, and I knew eventually he was going to do something really stupid, so I don't feel sorry for him. It's this town I feel sorry for. This place has been way different since he kicked the bucket, emptier. And it looks like from here it's only going to get worse.

When Ascot first went missing, I heard about it, sure, but I didn't really get it—yeah, he was gone, but this wasn't the first time or anything. Ever since we were kids he'd been dragging Ledore or Layton into the woods to look at rocks. I just thought it was old folks overreacting again until Layton went and told me that he really was gone this time: fallen down a hole, in a cave, in the middle of nowhere.

It was weird, thinking that he wouldn't come back out of there. I couldn't wrap my head around it. Really I guess I still can't, and every time one of those search parties return I almost feel like Ascot could be with them, half-dead, but grinning like an idiot and going on about all the old crap he'd found and what a famous archaeologist he's going to be. If that does happen, I'm going to hit him. Nobody here deserves the crap he's putting them through, especially not Angela. Not after what happened to her brother.

I haven't seen Angela since Layton came back. I tried to go visit her a few times, but she won't come out of her room.

We had a weird sort-of memorial service for him, but we're not even really sure that he's dead, right? I mean, Ledore's the only one nuts enough to say so, but we're all thinking it: there was no body. He fell down a hole. How do we know he's really dead? Nobody said anything, though. We all stood around in front of some gravestone thing they put up for him on the hill near his house, and just…remembered him, I guess. But it was stupid. Angela wasn't there, Ledore wasn't there, Layton was too scared of old man Ascot to be there, and eventually I had to leave too: all the old folks kept talking about what a good boy Ascot had been, and what a great fucking person he always was—lies like that. Ascot was a self-absorbed jerk his whole life long, and everybody who knew him knows it. And then his dad got up and started making speeches about his creative forward-thinking special son. I couldn't stop thinking _you've been telling him to give up on that stuff since he was eight. You kicked him out of the house for a night when he was eleven. _It made me sick, and I just had to get out of there. They were singing church songs. Ascot had been sneaking out of church for years.

Nobody talks to Layton at school. All the other kids look past him, and the teachers don't call on him, and he just stares out the window all class. Angela doesn't even come to school. Everyone tries to ignore Ascot's empty desk, but nobody has the guts to sit in it, so I bet it'll stay that way until the end of the school year. The worst part about going to school is that all of our classes are so quiet. He used to talk for half the class. You can't even forget about it if you want to take a piss—I went into the bathroom just last week and Layton was in there, sitting on the floor hugging his knees and just kind of staring at the toilet. I asked him if he was ok. He said he just needed a break. I didn't ask him any other questions and left because it was awkward, but I didn't see him go out of there until the end of the day. It bugs me seeing a nice guy like Layton so depressed. But then, I'd be depressed if Angela hated me, too.

Ledore is even worse. A while ago, old man Ascot fired him. Now he just hangs around the Ascot property like a zombie all day, and takes charity at night from the old dears who invite him in to sleep on the couch. He doesn't say anything much to anyone, but I hear he's in some serious denial right now and keeps saying that Ascot's coming back. He's going out into the desert with the next search party. I wonder how long before he leaves town for real. That's what Layton's doing, and I feel like I might have to too. You can't get anything done in a dead place like this. Not if you saw Randall every day, watched him grow up, watched him leave and not come back. Nobody can do anything here anymore. Ascot killed this whole town.

I wonder how he'd feel about that.


End file.
